Believe it or not a website does have a carbon footprint just like anything else. The servers that keep the content running and available to view online have an effect on the environment. Read here how we’re working hard at reducing our website carbon footprint.
Featured image courtesy of: Jordan Harrison on Unsplash
Data stores and server farms produce huge amounts of heat. Servers have to be kept cool to run properly and this process uses electricity to keep fans and air conditioning working. The bigger and heavier a website is, the harder it has to work and the hotter it gets and then the servers have to work harder so the more electricity it uses and so on!
Keeping the site simple
Reducing the load on the images we use on our website by keeping them lightweight without (hopefully) losing any of the quality by using standard font on a white background. A slower loading website uses more energy.
On most websites, images are the largest contributors to page weight. The more images you use, especially larger image files, the more data needs to be transferred and the more energy is used. You’ll notice we only use one image on most of our pages.
We also use stock images that are already available under the commons useage policy and we give credit to the original photographer of each image for their work.
We don’t use moving or flickering advertising gimmicks or videos as these put extra loads on the pages and again using more energy and helping us again in reducing our website carbon footprint.
On most of our blog pages, you’ll see that you have the option to print off a page or article without images for faster, lighter printing which also allows you to read the article again at a later date without using any more electricity.